Guide Contents

Administrative Information

Access and
Restrictions:

Th

is collection is open for research.

Digital Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but
does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this
collection. Materials are available only in the Special Collections
Department.

Use of Collections:The University of Iowa Libraries supports
access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections.
Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their
fragile condition or by contractual agreement with donors, and
it may not be possible at all times to provide appropriate machinery
for reading, viewing or accessing non-paper-based materials.
Please read our Use of
Manuscripts Statement.

Biographical Note

Cornelia Meigs was born at
Rock Island, Illinois, in 1884. She grew up in a family where storytelling
was second nature. In a paper in this collection she says, "Since my father's
kindred had been, in long succession, officers in the army and navy and my
mother's father and mother had been pioneers from Vermont to Illinois, stories
current in our house made the settlement of the Middle West, the War of 1812,
the brush with the Barbary pirates, and the Civil War as familiar as any
events within the century."

She received a public school education before going
to Bryn Mawr College, where she received her A.B. degree in 1908. She taught
English in Davenport, Iowa, at St. Katherine's School until 1913. She taught
in the English Department at Bryn Mawr from 1932 to 1950.

Meigs published her first book for children, The
Kingdom of the Winding Road, in 1915. She wrote over thirty books
for children. She sometimes wrote under the pseudonym of Adair Aldon. In
1927 she won the Beacon Hill Bookshelf Prize with The
Trade Wind and in 1934 she won the Newberry Medal for Invincible
Louisa, a biography of Loisa May Alcott, becoming the first Iowan
to win that honor. In 1953 A
Critical History of Children's Literature was published, for which
Meigs served as editor, and she wrote some of the pieces as well. In
addition to writing books for young people, Meigs also wrote short
stories for magazines. She
died in 1973.

C. Pummer and J. Roethler, August 2004

Scope and
Contents

This collection consi

sts of Meigs' drafts and correspondence concerning her book The New Moon.